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A love story.
Click here to [[ begin|'Hey, You!']].
<<silently>><<set $cats = 0>><</silently>>
<<silently>><<set $pigs = 0>><</silently>>
<<silently>><<set $monk = 0>><</silently>>
<<silently>><<set $dogs = 0>><</silently>>
<<silently>><<set $toe = 0>><</silently>>
<<silently>><<set $fin = 0>><</silently>>
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/visitors.png" />
A large man, dressed in thick, black, rip-stop fabric from his toes up to his head, pulls you forward from the throng of bodies and presses your arm into a complex arrangement of metal and hinges and thick red plastic tape.
His costume is embelished with a sea of [[hieroglyphs|Hieroglyphs]], [[pictograms|Pictograms]] and [[logos|Logos]].
Sensing the ease with which one of your limbs has been transported several feet against your will, as well as the collection of metal dripping from the warden you're not sure whether to [[resist|Squirming]] or [[succumb|Flaccid]].
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/police.png" />
<<silently>><<set $dicecheck = 1>><</silently>>
<<if $fin eq 1>>
You emerge from an irregularly shaped hole, coming up between two railway signal posts.
<</if>>
Whilst there is a track here it is clearly unfinished. Almost comically so, as the rails at first lose their sleepers and then extend into nothing soon after.
Weeds have begun to grow around the signs promising 'DANGER OF DEATH' and 'CHANCE OF MUTILATION'.
The finished trackway leads to a [[pit|Limbo Pit]] whilst a gap in the tree line looks like it leads to some sort of [[machine|ATM]].
Between two signal posts is the entrance to a [[hole|Hot Tunnel]].
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/rail.png" />
Your limp wrist is wrapped in a thick band of hard, yet slightly flexible, red plastic by a flurry of mechanical arms.
It does not hurt.
After gaining your new [[identity|Wristband]] the uniformed man takes you by the shoulders and guides you, forcefully, to a gate in the 15ft fence running around the perimeter of the [[area|Where are you?]].
You walk through the gates and along a path, also fence-lined. In the distance, arching over the path you can't quite make out a [[sign|Almost Limbo]].
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/flaccid.png" />
Your efforts earn you a heavy thump in the side of the head from a heavy and well-designed baton. You get a black eye and decide to end your fruitless writhing.
After gaining your new [[identity|Wristband]] the uniformed man takes you by the shoulders and guides you, forcefully, to a gate in the 15ft fence running around the perimeter of the [[area|Where are you?]].
You walk through the gates and along a path, also fence-lined. In the distance, arching over the path you can't quite make out a [[sign|Nearly Limbo]].
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/squirming.png" />
<<silently>><<set $pigs = 0>><</silently>>
From here you can see a lake to your left, its water the same sort of grey consistency as cheap, tinned, mushroom soup.
One direction of the path leads to the [[crossroads|Crossroads]].
The other to a small [[marketplace|Marketplace]].
<<if $dogs eq 2>>
An alarm is beeping in the distance.
<</if>>
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/dirtroad.png" /><<silently>><<set $pigs = 0>><</silently>>
You are in the middle of a large paved square.
The tarmac is soft underfoot and some small green plants are beginning to poke through in places.
Around the edge of the square are replicas of the same house. They seem still, the few with any light eminating from their windows show no signs of movement.
There are a great many people moving across and around the square, they seem to know where they are going.
No matter how hard you [[try|Screaming]] none will speak to you.
Somewhere in the distance is the sound of a large body of water.
From here you must [[press on|Crossroads]].
<<if $dogs eq 2>>
An alarm is beeping in the distance.
<</if>>
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/limbo.png" />
'WELCOME TO LIMBO'
Is painted on the sign above your head in fresh thin emulsion.
You pass under it.
Below the paint you can make out the grain of the brushed metal sheet riveted to poles that otherwise make up part of the fence to your left and to your right.
Along the bottom of the sign, in much smaller type is written:
'a managed community provided for by the local authority in cooperation with private contractors.'
To your left you can make out another similar path with another similar sign, inaccessible through the fence. From here the only way is [[forward|Limbo Square]].
<<if $dogs eq 2>>
If you listen hard and the wind is right you can make out an alarm beeping a long way off.
<</if>>
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/alimbo.png" />
<<if $monk eq 1>>
The ATM is no longer powered.
It sits alone and empty.
<img src="img/atmnope.png" />
<<else>>
Sitting just through a gap in the treeline, one solitary ATM glows asking you to 'PLEASE INSERT CARD'.
You can search your pockets for a [[bank card|ATM Flashing]].
<img src="img/atm.png" />
<</if>>
Behind you lies the [[unfinished railway|Unfinished Railway]].
<<silently>><<set $fin = 0>><</silently>>
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
All of the stalls are empty.
Faded plastic tarpaulins judder in the wind along with their wiry metal supports.
A shadow of a man is lying face down on the ground. He is breathing but unresponsive. across the back of his nylon jacket is printed the word NOFORN.
Near to the man a once-pink [[tarpaulin|Under Cover]] sits in a heap, having removed itself from its support.
One path leads back to the [[dirt road|Dirt Road]].
The other onwards to what looks like a pile of [[shipping containers|Shipping Containers]].
<<if $dogs eq 2>>
If you listen hard and the wind is right you can make out an alarm beeping a long way off.
<</if>>
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/market.png" />
As you get closer to the containers you can see that they're inhabited by a handful of characters much unlike the other people you've seen so far.
Keen faces you can make out, all buzzing with words and looks and gestures and expressions. Cigarette smoke pours from their hands.
However, much like everywhere else you've been, the area is still shrouded in mist and encircled by a disgustingly tall metal fence.
One of the cast, a short, stocky woman, with eyes shifting every which way, explains in a solid voice that she can get you out of here. That if you want to escape it'll take nothing more than a game of chance.
You can [[speak to her|Decisions]] or return to the [[marketplace|Marketplace]].
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/containers.png" />
Unlit and painfully warm, the air is heavy with damp.
With no way of seeing you grope in the dark and find a handrail suggesting the tunnel runs in a straight line.
Chromed plastic feels under your skin, streaked with the finger grease of someone before you.
The can only go [[one way|Unfinished Railway]] or [[the other|Under Cover]].
<<silently>><<set $fin = 1>><</silently>>
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/tunnel.png" />
You feel rich.
Upon closer inspection the notes are in tiny denominations of foreign currencies you've not seen before.
You are less sure.
Along with the notes you also find a large plastic die sitting in the collection tray.
[[Take money and die and run|Unfinished Railway]]
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/money.png" />
<<if $toe eq 1>>
You crash through the last stack of boxes and find yourself less oriented than you were before you started on your way through them.
<<endif>>
The walls here are made of a labyrinth of pipes, each gulping and hissing in a different tone to the one passing under or over or through it.
You can go [[East|Supply Cupboard]],[[South|A Stairwell]] or [[West|Brand New Box Factory]].
<<if $dogs eq 2>>
The alarm is wailing from somewhere in the building.
<</if>>
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/passageway.png" />
Bare concrete steps are finished roughly.
The stairs only lead [[down|Basement]] and it looks like they continue to the centre of the planet.
From here one way leads [[North|A Passageway]] and one [[West|A Corridor]].
<<if $dogs eq 2>>
The alarm is wailing from downstairs.
<<else>>
<<set $dogs = 0>>
<</if>>
<<silently>><<set $toe = 0>><</silently>>
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/stairwell.png" /><<if $dogs eq 1>>
As you enter the room you trip over a fire extinguisher alarm cord, snapping its key in the process and setting off an ear-piercing beep.
There is nothing else here.
The only way is [[back|Basement]].
<<silently>><<set $dogs += 1>><</silently>>
<<else>>
There is nothing here.
The only way is [[back|Basement]].
The alarm is wailing at you.
<</if>>
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/deadend.png" />
At the base of the stairs a small square hallway leads directly on to one [[room|Dead End]].
The only way back is [[up|A Stairwell]].
<<silently>><<if $dogs <= 1>><<set $dogs += 1>><</if>><</silently>>
<<if $dogs eq 2>>
The alarm is wailing from the next room.
<</if>>
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/basement.png" />
The walls are littered with signs and hoardings, non of which seem congruent with their setting.
You can return the way you came to the [[south|Brand New Box Factory]], go [[East|A Stairwell]] or make your way through the collection of boxes to the [[north|A Passageway]].
<<if $dogs eq 2>>
The alarm is wailing from somewhere in the building.
<</if>>
<<silently>><<set $toe = 1>><</silently>>
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/corridor.png" />
Fumbling through the cloud of pockets sewn into your clothes, you eventually find a small rectangular piece of plastic. It looks somewhat like a bank card but you can't remember if its yours.
[[Stick it in.|ATM Whirring]]
<<silently>><<set $monk = 0>><</silently>>
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/atm2.png" /><<silently>><<set $pigs = 0>><</silently>>
You are in the middle of a lake of grey water.
You are sitting on the face of a politician.
The current is pulling you towards the [[opposite bank|Crossroads]].
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/water.png" />
'You wanna play big man?? We've got everything setup for a nice little game a' dice. Well 'cept the dice 'emselves!
You find us a pair and ye can join us in the backroom there...'
<<if $cats eq 0>>
[[Try and enter the backroom knowing full well you have no dice to play with|OI!!!]].<</if>>
<<if $cats eq 1>>
[[See if you can play with just the one die|Come On]].<</if>>
<<if $cats eq 2>>
[[Show off your mismatched pair of dice and walk into the backroom like you've always meant to be there.|Game Time]]
<</if>>
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/decisions.png" />
'Defo mate? Once ya inta this yer in it fe' good.'
[[Yes.|Remorse]]
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/gametime.png" />
After playing for what feels like days, but could have only been a dozen or so hours if the [[clock|Clock]] on the table at the rear of the room is correct, you are forced to leave.
You have lost the few possessions you had with you. Including the foreign currency which turned out to be rather a lot of money.
On your way out, with no hope of passage out of this place, you spy one of your opponents idly fondling a pair of dice under the table; an exact match for the pair that you have just spent game after game with, rolling nothing but snake eyes.
Their eye catches yours and offers a knowing wink.
[[Leave|Left]]
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/snakeeyes.png" />
Symbols charged with meaning and decipherable by those with the right vocabulary. Mixed in amongst them the numbers 7, 3, 6, 2.
<<return "Back">>.
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/hiero.png" />
Warnings, cautions and instructions. Every image seems tense.
<<return "Back">>.
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/picto.png" />
Lines, dots and curves swirl across the fabric as if scattered upon it from a height.
<<return "Back">>.
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/post.png" />
The numbers are miserable.
You turn <<return "back">>.
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/clock.png" />
Unsure of where to go or what to do, surrounded by fences & shipping containers and emptied of anything of worth, you sit on the ground.
Your entire time spent in Limbo feels as though you've been playing a part in another person's ordeal.
As if you could have been <<click "someone else all along.">><<script>>UISystem.restart()<</script>><</click>>.
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/lefty.png" />
A number of dots have been embossed into the plastic's surface in an uneven pattern.
It must mean something to someone but to you: nothing.
<<return "Back">>
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/wristband.png" />
The ground is dark and vague underfoot.
The air is thick with mist.
It is night time.
To the horizon extends metal and floodlights and barked orders.
<<return "Back">>.
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/where.png" />
'WELCOME TO LIMBO'
Is painted on the sign above your head in fresh thin emulsion.
You pass under it.
Below the paint you can make out the grain of the brushed metal sheet riveted to poles that otherwise make up part of the fence to your left and to your right.
Along the bottom of the sign, in much smaller type is written:
'a managed community provided for by the local authority in cooperation with private contractors.'
To your left you can make out another similar path with another similar sign, inaccessible through the fence. From here the only way is [[forward|Limbo Pit]].
<<if $dogs eq 2>>
If you listen hard and the wind is right you can make out an alarm beeping a long way off.
<</if>>
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/nelimbo.png" />
It is difficult to make out their faces. They are not covered but you are having a hard time coralling their features into any kind of a recognisable pattern.
Waving your hands, screaming, even physically shaking them results in nothing more than a slight alteration of their trajectory.
You <<return "give up">>.
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/screaming.png" />
<<if $pigs eq 1>>You clamber onto dry land from your makeshift raft which promptly floats back to the other side of the lake.<</if>>
There are no signs of anyone else being confused as to their whereabouts or their purpose. This despite the mass of fearful faces back in the line before you got your wristband.
You are now standing at a crossroads.
Ahead of you the path [[continues|Dirt Road]].
Behind you the path broadens into a [[square|Limbo Square]].
To your right sits a large stern-looking building, outside of which a sign proclaims the opening of a [[brand new box factory|Brand New Box Factory]].
<<if $dogs eq 2>>
A high pitched beep can be heard faintly coming from the factory.
<</if>>
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/crossroads.png" />
A small, seemingly forgotten, space. There is nothing here but empty shelves.
<<if $dicecheck eq 1>>
<<silently>><<set $cats += 1>><<set $dicecheck +=1>><</silently>>
On closer inspection you find one small, yellowed die in the corner of the bottom shelf. It is covered in dust.
[[Take die and leave|A Passageway]].
<<else>>
[[Take a whiff of the dust filled air and leave|A Passageway]].
<</if>>
<<if $dogs eq 2>>
The alarm is wailing from somewhere in the building.
<</if>>
<<silently>><<set $toe = 0>><</silently>>
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/supply.png" /><<silently>><<set $pigs = 0>><</silently>>
After searching for a while for some sign of how to enter the buidling, your wristband graces the spot where a door handle would usually sit and the factory door opens with a 'click'.
Despite having opened less than a week ago, according to the sign outside, the place feels half-finished and already run-down. Make-shift loops of duct-tape hold up cable-runs and some windows are propped open with small cardboard boxes.
There are no signs of human activity and on what was originally designed as a reception desk sits an LED display reading:
'WELCOME TO LIMBO BOX FACTORY. FULLY AUTOMATED FOR [6] DAYS!'
The number six is written on an A4 sheet of paper and taped over the sign.
You can return to the [[crossroads|Crossroads]] through the door.
There are corridors to the [[East|A Passageway]] and [[South|A Corridor]].
<<if $dogs eq 2>>
The alarm is wailing from somewhere in the building.
<</if>>
<<silently>><<set $toe = 0>><</silently>>
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/factory.png" />
You are now sitting on the ground underneath a pink tarpaulin.
It is quiet and it is warm.
There used to be some lettering heat-pressed onto the cover but it has long since pealed away; evidenced only by slightly less faded areas.
A hole leads [[down|Hot Tunnel]] into the earth, darkness bulging from the opening in the direction of the lake.
You could come out from under the tarpaulin into the [[marketplace|Marketplace]].
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/tarp.png" />
'WE CAN'T PLAY WITHOUT ANY DICE!!!'
The squat woman bellows at you, every hair on your body stands on end.
She collects your collar in one hand and your waistband in the other and, with cartoonish ease, launches you back into the [[marketplace|Marketplace]].
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/oi.png" />
'mate'
None too pleased, the woman gives you a look as if to ask 'what do you want me to do with that thing, eat it??'
[[You turn away, resolved to find another die.|Shipping Containers]]
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/comeon.png" />
You find yourself at the edge of a large pit. Looking over is dizzying and from what you can make out a collection of bodies are working their way down along a thin circling path to a centre you cannot see.
In the distance an eighteen-year-old baby is crying.
To your right a grey soupy liquid is lapping at the shore. An old advertising hoarding is floating here, about 30ft across, it looks like you could use it as a [[raft|Grey Water]].
Ahead of you are what look like [[railway tracks|Unfinished Railway]].
<<silently>><<set $fin = 0>><</silently>>
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/pit.png" />
As soon as the card touches the metal lips of the machine it hoovers it up faster than you could have ever inserted it manually. A stream of images flashes across the fluroscent tube display.
The machine then promptly spits a wad of bank notes out into its [[collection tray|Money]].
<<silently>><<set $cats += 1>><</silently>>
<<silently>><<set $monk += 1>><</silently>>
<span class="pastit"><<print passage()>></span>
<img src="img/atm3.png" />